Install Guest Additions. With your Virtual Machine running, open the Devices menu. Click on Install Guest Additions from the drop-down menu. If AutoPlay is enabled you will see the prompt above, click on the Run VBox.exe (depends on operating system running on the guest machine. I am trying to share a folder on VirtualBox with a guest OS X, I tried to share the folder through VirtualBox but it doesn't show up in OS X. I also tried sharing a folder on OS X and access it from Ubuntu also failed. So I need someone who did this before with success to tell me how to correctly do this.
In order to access certain aspects of a virtual machine in VirtualBox, you will need to install Guest Additions (similar to VMWare Tools I guess)
There is a manual page for installing Guest Additions but not all of it is self-explanatory…
First you need to log into your Linux virtual machine (VM) and install/configure x, y and z.
This part is relatively straightforward, just install using whatever package manager your Linux distribution has. The below example uses APT that comes with Debian-based distros:
Usefully Oracle don’t tell you in their guide, but it is available with the rest of the downloads at http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/
So for example for version 4.1.6 the VBoxGuestAdditions_4.1.6.iso is located at http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.1.6/VBoxGuestAdditions_4.1.6.iso
You need this image to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions themselves onto your VM, so you can either download it to your Linux VM and mount it there, or (which is what I did) download it to your Mac OS X host and mount it in the DVD drive using the VirtualBox Manager.
You need to mount the image on the Linux VM, so that you can install VirtualBox Guest Additions from it. If you have mounted it in the VirtualBox Manager in the DVD drive then you will still need to mount it in the Linux VM; Since I can’t remember the last time I had to mount something in *nix from the command-line, here’s a quick way.
Then you should see VBoxLinuxAdditions in that directory, which you need to run as per the manual. If the above doesn’t work it might be because your DVD drive in VirtualBox is called something else, like dvd (instead of dvd1) which probably differs depending on which distro you’re using.
Then you need to run the installer.
Once that’s done you can restart.
Everything should be finished now installation/configuration-wise, but you might encounter some problems… (otherwise skip to Mount the host folder)
I got some missing kernel header problems when trying to install Guest Additions, which if building the main Guest Additions module fails will be logged.
If you see something like this…
So you can do just that!
Hopefully this should install now (although the XFree86 bit will fail, assuming you’re using the command-line) and you may need to restart the VM, although I’m not sure.
You can create the host folder in the VirtualBox Manager in the Shared Folders tab on the Settings for that VM. If you add it on the command-line it’ll appear under the machine folders anyways. If you want to type it though, here’s what you’d type into the Mac OS X terminal (note this is the only thing that you’d type into the host itself)
To mount the Shared Folder from within the guest, the instructions from Ubuntu (as my guest is Ubuntu, although I think this is a better way to mount it anyways) were very useful.
Just change the target to be wherever you want the Shared Folder to be mounted in the guest. Now in theory if you go to that path in the guest, it should be the same as the directory you shared from the host!
Because Oracle VM VirtualBox is designed to provide a generic virtualization environment for x86 systems, it can run guest operating systems (OSes) of any kind.
The following guest OS platforms are supported:
Platforms With Full Support. These guest OS platforms qualify for Oracle Premier Support. See Table 3.1, “Guest Operating Systems With Full Support”.
Platforms With Limited Support. These legacy guest OS platforms can be used with Oracle VM VirtualBox, but only qualify for best effort support. Therefore, resolution of customer issues is not guaranteed. See Table 3.2, “Legacy Guest Operating Systems With Limited Support”.
Table 3.1 Guest Operating Systems With Full Support
Operating System | Comments |
---|---|
Windows 10 (32-bit and 64-bit) | Insider preview builds are not supported |
Windows 8 and 8.1 (32-bit and 64-bit) | |
Windows Server 2019 (64-bit) | |
Windows Server 2016 (64-bit) | |
Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 (64-bit) | |
Solaris 11 (32-bit and 64-bit) | |
Solaris 10 8/11 Update 10 and later (32-bit and 64-bit) | |
Oracle Linux 8 (64-bit) | Includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, CentOS 8 |
Oracle Linux 7 (64-bit) | Includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, CentOS 7 |
Oracle Linux 6 (32-bit and 64-bit) | Includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, CentOS 6 |
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) (32-bit and 64-bit) | |
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) (64-bit) | |
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) (64-bit) | |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 (64-bit) | |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 (64-bit) |
Table 3.2 Legacy Guest Operating Systems With Limited Support
Operating System | Comments |
---|---|
Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) | |
Windows Vista SP2 and later (32-bit and 64-bit) | |
Windows XP (32-bit) | |
Windows Vista (32-bit) | |
Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 (32-bit and 64-bit) | |
Windows Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit) | |
Oracle Linux 5 (32-bit and 64-bit) | Includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, CentOS 5 |
Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS (Trusty Tahr) (32-bit and 64-bit) | |
OS/2 Warp 4.5 |
Oracle VM VirtualBox enables you to install and execute unmodified versions of Mac OS X guests on supported host hardware. Note that this feature is experimental and thus unsupported.
Oracle VM VirtualBox is the first product to provide the modern PC architecture expected by OS X without requiring any of the modifications used by competing virtualization solutions. For example, some competing solutions perform modifications to the Mac OS X install DVDs, such as a different boot loader and replaced files.
Be aware of the following important issues before you attempt to install a Mac OS X guest:
Mac OS X is commercial, licensed software and contains both license and technical restrictions that limit its use to certain hardware and usage scenarios. You must understand and comply with these restrictions.
In particular, Apple prohibits the installation of most versions of Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware.
These license restrictions are also enforced on a technical level. Mac OS X verifies that it is running on Apple hardware. Most DVDs that accompany Apple hardware check for the exact model. These restrictions are not circumvented by Oracle VM VirtualBox and continue to apply.
Only CPUs that are known and tested by Apple are supported. As a result, if your Intel CPU is newer than the Mac OS X build, or if you have a non-Intel CPU, you will likely encounter a panic during bootup with an 'Unsupported CPU' exception.
Ensure that you use the Mac OS X DVD that comes with your Apple hardware.
The Mac OS X installer expects the hard disk to be partitioned. So, the installer will not offer a partition selection to you. Before you can install the software successfully, start the Disk Utility from the Tools menu and partition the hard disk. Close the Disk Utility and proceed with the installation.
In addition, Mac OS X support in Oracle VM VirtualBox is an experimental feature. See Known Limitations.
Be sure to enable I/O APIC for virtual machines that you intend to use in 64-bit mode. This is especially true for 64-bit Windows VMs. See Section 3.4.2, “Advanced Tab”. For 64-bit Windows guests, ensure that the VM uses the Intel networking device because there is no 64-bit driver support for the AMD PCNet card. See Section 6.1, “Virtual Networking Hardware”.
If you use the Create VM wizard of the VirtualBox Manager, Oracle VM VirtualBox automatically uses the correct settings for each selected 64-bit OS type. See Section 1.7, “Creating Your First Virtual Machine”.
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